Rope attaching means



April 2l, 1953 s, s RQBY 2,635,904

ROPE ATTACHING MEANS Filed OCT.. 1l, 1949 Patented Apr. 21, 1953 ROPE ATTACHING MEANS Sheldon S. Roby, Meriden, Conn., assigner to The Stanley Works, New Britain, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application October 11, 1949, Serial No. 120,720

3 Claims. 1

The present invention relates to rope attaching means and, more particularly, to means for forming a connection for rope ends having particular advantage in the installation of guide or barrier ropes, safety ropes, service ropes, or similar ropes of general utility for decorative Ipurpose. The invention has particular advantage in the mounting or attachment of safety ropes to automatically operated doors such as the so-called magic eye doors. In the installation of such doors, it is the practice to suspend a rope from the door on the exit side of the door to restrain persons from walking into the 'path of the door.

It is an aim of the present invention to provide a rope connection of the character referred to which will form an eifective attachment or anchorage for the rope, which will have a pleasing streamlined appearance, which is oi simple construction and fabrication so that it may be manufactured and installed at low cost, and which will be sufficiently rugged to provide eifective service over long 'periods of time. Included in this aim is the object of providing a rope attaching means which will operate in an improved manner, which will be easy to assemble and disassemble both for pur-poses of the original installation or for replacement, and which will have greater usefulness and versatility.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out more in detail hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereafter set forth and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the drawings- Figure 1 is a top view partially in cross section of a magic eye door installation and including a safety rope mounted by means of the attaching means of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged, side view of the attaching means;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary front View;

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional View taken along line 4-4 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 5--5 of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, a typical magic eye door installation is shown in Fig. 1. As shown in Fig. l, a door I is hinged at I2 on the door jamb Il so that the door in opening will pivot clockwise as viewed in Fig. 1. A pathway toward and away from the door is dened by front railings i4 extending between front posts I5 and the door jamb and by railings I 6 extending rearwardly to rear posts II. A light source I8 is fixed to one of the front posts I5 and also to one of the rear posts I'I. The light from these light sources acts upon a photoelectric cell indicated at I9 in the opposite post I5.

Means (not shown in the drawing) is provided for actuating the door in both an opening and closing direction. This mechanism is so arranged that, when the path between the front light source and the photoelectric cell is interrupted, the door will be opened and will remain. open until the person entering through the door has moved beyond the rear light source, whereupon the door will again close. In most installations, the operation of the door is generally fairly rapid and, accordingly, `there is a possibility of injury should someone walk from the rear into the path of opening of the door. To prevent this happening, it is the general practice to suspend a restraining or warning rope from the door as indicated by the rope fastened at one end to the door I0 and at the other end to a rear railing I6. Although the member 20 is referred to herein as a ropa it actually may be a piece of rubber tubing as shown more particularly in Fig. 2 of the drawings. When rubber tubing is utilized, it usually is provided with a surface finish to simulate a cloth covered rope.

The foregoing is given merely by way of nackground to illustrate the use of the present invention. The invention is more particularly directed to the means for attaching the rope 20 to the door I0 and railing I6, the details of which are shown more particularly in Figs, 2, 3 and 4 oi the drawings.

Referring to Fig. 2, means is provided for forming a rigid anchor on the door which. consists of a hollow post adapted to be received in and extend through bore 3l in the door I0, this post being provided with a flange 32 adapted to abut against the face of the door. An extension 33 is provided on the post 30 and is formed with an internally threaded opening 34 for receiving a threaded stud 35 adapted to extend through the hollow post 30 from the opposite side of the door and having a head 355 abutting against the opposite face of the door. Resilient washers 3l may be provided to facilitate a tight connection with the door.

The end of the threaded post 35 is bifurcated as indicated at 38 in Fig. 3 to receive the end of a set screw 33 which, when inserted, effectively The member MJ provides a seat for a ball ii which is formed with an extended neck portion received outwardly through the cut-away section c3. The extension 5I is adapted to be attached to the rope 2@ as will be explained` more particularly hereafter. As will be apparent from Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings, this construction permits free swiveling movement oi the ball 50 except aslimited by `engagement of the neck portion 5l' with the periphery of the cut-away segment 43.

The neck portion 5i is provided. at its .outer end with an annular groove 52 and a beveled edge 53. a result of Vthis construction, the neck 5I is adapted to be readily attached or detached from an engaging' member 5t shown more particularly in Fig. 4 of the drawings, which is mounted within a cap El adapted to fit over `the end of the rope 251i. The member iii), as best shown in Fig.` 4, is an annular ring-like device provided with a central opening 52 and radial bores 'E3 in which are disposed balls ifl which are pressed inwardly toward the opening Si by springs 55. The member @il is retained at the forward end lof the cap 6l by an extended tubular portion 6E which is received through the opening el ofthe cap 6l and swaged thereto.

As will be apparent, when the neck lll is pushed into the member 6H, the balls t2 are first camm'ed outwardly to prevent the entrance of `the neck 5l and then return inwardly to seat in the annular groove 52. This will ordinarily Ahold the attachment in the position shown in `Fig. 2, but may be released by suihcient tension to cause' the balls d2 to be again unseated from the groove 52.

To provide for the attachment of the rope 2li to the cap el, there is provided. 'an insert for the end of the rope which comprises a pressure member le, an end piece ll, a screw T2 extending therebetween, and a rubber bushing 73 situated between the end piece 'Il and the pressure member lil. When the screw ll is turned to withdraw same from the pressure member lil, the pressure on the rub-ber bushing 'le is released and the device may be easily inserted into or removed from the rope 2S. When the assembly has been inserted into the end of the rope 2li, however, the screw i2 may be turned to draw in on the pressure member lli causing laxial compression of the rubber bushing i3 which is accompanied by a radial expansion sufficient to expand the rope 2li thus effectively locking the cap 6l on the end of the rope 2e'. rlhe screw 'l2 can readily be turned by inserting a turningV tool, such as a screw driver, through the opening provided by the tubular portion te in the cap 6I.

As a result of the construction of the embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an attaching means which is of pleasing and distinctive appearance suitable for installations of the type referred to and which will function an improved manner. Among the advantages,

for example, is that when the door moves from a closed to an open position, the attaching means, though metallic, will be substantially noiseless in operation and will not come into marring contact with the door or wall. That is because the rope will rapidly move from the position shown in dot and dash lines in Fig. 2 to the position shown in solid lines in Fig. 2, and further movement will be prevented by engagement oi the neck di against the edge of the cut-out section @il or" the member di). The points of contact are so close to the center of the ball 5B that the noise is almost inaudible and all other metallic portions of the attaching means are spaced from the door and wall which not only avoids the noise of' contact as previously mentioned, but also prevents marring of the door or wall. As a result, it is not necessary to provide any snubbers or' similar devices for preventing contact ci the attaching means with the door as frequently has been the case in the past.

By reason of the present invention, the attachment and detachment of ropes such as rope .2d has been greatly facilitated and yet this improved operation kis sufficiently concealed so that `unauthorized persons would be unlikely to discover how to remove the rope. Removal and replacement of the rope has been rendered extremely simple and easyl to carry out.

The device is oi simple construction and may be fabricated and assembled at low cost. Yet the device is extremely effective in. operation and enhances the value of door installations of this type.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or Shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim as my invention:

l. A barrier rope-like member for use with automatically operated doors and the like comprising a iiexible tube, a cap for one end of the tube having a center axial opening, means for attaching the tube to the cap comprising radially expansible means actuated through said opening, a ball-like member having an extended neck portion for insertion through the axial cap opening, means within the cap for releasably engaging said neck portion, and a seat for said balllike member adapted to be attached to a door comprising a tubular member having a hood-like extension providing a concave bearing surface enclosing the upper portion of the end of the tubular member.

2. A barrier rope-like member as dened in claim 1 in which the said radially expansible means comprises a rubbei` bushing situated between. members adjustably connected through a centrally located screw extending therebetween.

3. Attaching means for tubular barrier ropes and the like comprising a cap for receiving one end of the rope and provided with an axial opening, means for securing the rope to the cap comprising a pair of members disposed within said one end of the rope and adjustably interconnected by a centrally located screw extending therebetween, a rubber bushing situated between said members and arranged to be expanded radially outwardly as said members are moved toward one another, said screw being substantially in registry with said opening for actuation therethrough, a ball-like member having an extended neck portion for insertion into said opening, spring pressed movable means carried by the cap and extending radially into said opening, said neck portion having an annular groove for receiving said movable means, and a seat for said ball-like member adapted to be attached to a door or the like and comprising a tube having a hood-like extension providing a concave bearing 5 surface enclosing substantially one-half of the end of the tube.

SHELDON S, ROBY.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 470,668 Fisher Mar. 15, 1892 823,594 Frazee June 19, 1906 1,304,757 FOX May 2'?, 1919 2,289,130 Lander et al July 7, 1942 2,327,831 Sutton Aug. 24, 1943 2,453,742 Bowen et al Nov. 16, 1948 2,542,967 Waechter Feb. 20, 1951 

